I came, I saw, I... was conquered? A Shogun 2 Oda AAR

**muha** · 03-24-2011, 17:33

Since this forum is so stretched out, I decided to add links to all my posts, in order from part 1, to what ever number of parts I end up posting, to make it easier for the reader(s) to look for my posts and read it all in order.

PART 1

PART 2 PART 31
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
PART 6
PART 7
PART 8
PART 9
PART 10
PART 11
PART 12
PART 13
PART 14
PART 15
PART 16
PART 17
PART 18
PART 19
PART 20
PART 21
PART 22
PART 23
PART 24
PART 25
PART 26
PART 27
PART 28
PART 29
PART 30

Hullo!

This is my Oda AAR. I haven't played total war seriously in some years, and haven't done an AAR for even longer. So any and all critisism is welcome. The AAR is already quite advanced, and will probably be finished soon. But so not to spamm this thread, I will limit my updates here to 1-2 updates a day.

So without further ado, I will divide my updates in years. so I will try to get at least one game year in every chance I get. Sometimes probably more.

I will narrate it how I play it, no role playing this time (sorry for that, I really hate role playing, gives me a headache)

The rules are such:

-unit size: Ultra

-Game difficulty: hard

-Faction: Oda. Just because I like the Daimyos helmet.

-Short Campaign, no drop in battles this time.

-I will only save before battles and end of turn, just in case if something happens. I will not load if something doesn't go my way.

-I will not pause to give orders during battles either. all real time fighting.

Turn 1, Year 1545, Spring

Here We go.. a cute intro movie plays. then the adviser gives me instructions on how to play my game. It seems pretty bad from first glance. Two enemy clans surrounding 3/4 of my borders, and a rebel army right next to my capital (i get a mission to kill the rebels)

I guess might as well start the game with a battle to see if there is point in continuing to type this....

Here are the armies

after a speech, in Japanese with English subtitles, I get to arrange my army:

archers at front, a battle line of peasant spears, and samurai spears as reserves, with general at the back.
I am actually concerned, it seems like the ai has the terrain advantage with a hill and forested areas in its deployment square.

I knew it.. up the hill they go..

I fast forward until my army gets in close. No battle map btw =(

The hill has 3 access points, I will use all 3 and will attempt a 3 way pincer, with my archers trying to support the long trek up hill.

The AI spreads his units semi evenly across the battle trying to cover all its flanks. I concentrate archer fire on the enemy cavalry (that charged downhill on my left flank Yari Ashigaru), and send in my general to support them.

the AI exposed its left flank and my pincer worked 2/3 of the way.

The light cavalry wasn't as scary as I thought, that explains the ai's move to go for my left flank with its remaining infantry..

The battle has ended with my victory, as the game predicted.

Its a heroic victory. I hope My superiority in numbers was the reason of such easy win.

Their army lives, I go in to finish the job.

Its too small of an enemy force, so I auto resolve.

Well, I completed my first mission.

My general also leveled up.

My new retainer:

My general new skill:

Okay! now to more important matters;

Clan management:

summary:

3 enemies...

Family and council:

no brothers, no useful sons, and only one general..

Records:?

nothing useful

Diplomacy:

not many options there..

Mastery of the arts:

I will go for improving my infrastructure first, I think..

Finance:

Taxes:

Trade:

Summary:

basically shows in detail all my expanses and income. nothing pretty to show.

Now to waste all my money.

I moved my only army closer to my capital, just in case.

The first two things I do are improve my farms from "rice paddies" to "improved irrigation" and my port from "coastal village" to "harbor"

That leaves me with 200 gold.. not enough to recruit any new troops, lets hope i made no mistakes..

end turn

oh dear.. both my enemy clans attack me at the same time

my reinforcing army will not make it back in time to save town..

but I must fight!

That is What I start with...

yay! my army is here to save the day

They send two units to try and get to my fort before my army does.

first loses are mine to arrows

sad to see generals still do suicide charges..

that goes both ways though..

with the enemy archers running, I send my general to safety

more suicide charges.. with 9 troops left, my general retreats into the fort

seems like we have a bug.. yes we do..

Looks like they all want out.. running at the red line like that..I guess I sally...

I set up my formation in the same matter as my last battle.

I hope a volley from my archers will kick start the ai..

even better... didn't even get in range and all of a sudden the enemy army jumped me... was this all a trap?!

with two general units hitting both my flanks, will my center hold 3 of their infantry units?

a charge to the back and everybody runs..

victory is mine!

I continue the battle and kill as many as possible. here is the filed of bodied:

some are still moving on the ground =O

Here is the battle report:

both armies retreat to their homeland.

turn 2, year 1545, summer.

I get another mission:

I set up a queue of another archer and spear units that will be ready next turn and get all my troops into the town for the time being.

I also improve my roads.

Nothing much else to do really... so i save and end my turn. I'm not expecting any more attacks this year. So i guess i should try to go on the attacks.

**muha** · 03-24-2011, 17:34

PART 2

Turn 3, year 1545, fall.

I mastered a new art, and will begin studying the way of the spear to complete that mission.

I also get yet another mission,

I cant afford to upgrade anything else, so I order two more Yari Ashigaru to be trained.

Noticed that enemy army sitting near my town? well, he appeared during his turn. I guess trying to cross the river?

Doesn't matter, I grab what forces I have and go to expel the intruders from my lands.

They retreat to the bridge, I follow.

Yet another small force to deal with, however, I will fight this battle, because the army you see will march on one of the enemy capitals.

My plan is to kill as many as possible with arrows before they get to hurt me in any way.

that's a tiny little bridge to cross.. fast forward till i get to it..

the ai does not let me make it to the bride with my infantry and charges at me through the bridge.

while their infantry holds my back, their archers pepper me =\

I let my general deal with them

victory is mine. Another heroic.

My Daimyo increased in rank as well

New retainer and skills that I picked for him:

for skills I went for strategist again. the other tree does not suit me at this time.

Since the Saito trespassed twice on my lands, I will deal with them first.

turn 4, year 1545, winter.

my roads and farms are now improved.

(quartermaster's report basically tells me what units were recruited)

The only thing I can upgrade this turn is my "harbor" into
"trading port" so I do that, get another archer and infantry units going, get my two newly recruited units into my army, and start building my very first ship, a "Medium Bune"

The saito opted to move their small army out of the town, I attack them before sieging the castle itself.

they retreat leaving their castle undefended.

so I siege the town, and grab it immediately, the battle is auto resolved.. how many troops cant I possibly lose to 60 men?

I occupy them.
And that gets me to complete a mission too!

The saito are destroyed, and I meet 4 new clans.

my new diplomacy tab:

I get trade agreements with everyone. With all my negotiating, I discovered 4 more clans, and get trade agreements with them as well.

So my income is nearly doubled now.

And this is the end of year 1545. Next turn will be spring of 1546 i think. so Ill see you when I write that up.

If you have any suggestions or idea, feel free to share. I know I need to practice taking screen shots..

**muha** · 03-26-2011, 04:43

PART 3

Turn 5, year 1546, spring.

I mastered a new art, "Bushido"

"Strategy of Defense" comes next.

The remaining Mino army raids one of my villages, I must deal with them before I do anything else.

My army does not make it to them this turn unfortunately

I grab what troops can make it through the bridge, and split up my army. If I don't, they might make it back to their old capitol and recapture it.But they run into the forests..

The fort in Owari can now be upgraded into a stronghold.

I set up a Que of 2 Yari Ashigaru in Mino,

Unable to give up on the Mino threat, I order my not yet fully recovered army from Owari and attack their forces.

I use my standard formation of archers at front, line of spears and general at the back.

the enemy is nowhere to be found...

My troops slowly advance, and shortly after the enemy troops are discovered running from hill to hill in the distance.

the battle should not be too difficult. My only concern is the 40 man general bodyguard. But seeing how effective my units are against cavalry, that should not be too big of a problem.

I keep one unit in reserve for the enemy general, the rest charge up the hill at their formation.

Ill try to get some good closeups..

Its cool how you can see them sword fight... very disorienting though..

their general moves in, I attack him

Everybody runs, I let my general pick out the routing enemy.

Here is the battle report:

The Mino menace is no more. And all my towns are no undefended.

I end my turn.

As I feared, the Tokugawa too advantage of the situation and sent what ever they had to capture my capitol.

No point in fighting back, I auto resolve.

A sad day for us all.

Turn 6, year 1546, summer.

Not good at all..

On top of that, as soon as they captured Owari, another, much bigger army came out and is en route to Mino. I must intercept them or I will lose everything!

I cant get all my troops together, so I split up my armies, one goes for Owari, the other for the Tokugawa army.

fingers crossed...

They have more troops then me, however, I do feel confident. My Ashigaru are far stronger, and I have some cavalry I can use.

This is my largest battle to date!

I'm sorry for being tedious, but I use the same formation again. Seems to be effective..

The enemy sets up on a cliff overlooking the valley I am in. Very good tactical positioning..

so ill waste the time and go around them to their backs..

The enemy troops intercept me..

I split my army in 2, half to protect the archers, half continues on.

they route before they even meet my battle line. Now is my chance to take out half their troops

they seem to have split up as well..

Their main force approaches my now depleted battle line, I must regroup.

Now the hill is mine, and that alone gives me victory! The enemy army routs!

My general gives chase once again. Seems like the general in my army are the mop up units..

I have not lost my mojo.. heroic victory after heroic victory!

And now to recapture Owari... witch must wait... my general could not take one step further this season to reach my own gates!

I set up a que of 2 bow ashgaru and 2 yari ashigaru in Mino, and end my turn with that.

Turn 7, year 1546, fall.

The Tokugawa tried to send in reinforcements into their newly captured province, But far too late, they will die by my swords and spears just like their 1,200 some brothers!

Battle for Owari:

I will rush the fort before The reinforcements get there.

My main army also makes it into the fray.

a pretty face,

My general dismount, and join the climb

The fort is mine.

My archers quite literally decimated the two enemy units that came to help.

The enemy runs, Owari is back in my hands.

Both my generals leveled up during this ordeal.

First, my Daimyo;

I max out the "strategist" and put one point into "cavalry Commander"

The general (Takayama)

The "strategist" is maxed out as well, and one point into "poet"

With the balance of power in my homeland now secure, I look to the south-east of my lands, the horse rich province under the command of Tokugawa Clan.

Two more Bow Ashigaru and ordered to be trained in Owari. And that ends my turn.

**muha** · 03-26-2011, 04:43

PART 4

Turn 8, year 1546, winter.

I have now mastered "strategy of Defense", the next art is indeed "Way of the spear" Once that is mastered, I will finish that mission that I have received last year.

Yet another distant clan falls.

And that opens the doors into the lands of Takeda.

The remainder of the Tokugawa army moved into the forest to hide there, too bad for them my scouts have good eyes.

Oda, my Daimyo, pushes them past the border and follows closely behind.

An Archery dojo is ordered to be built in Mino

The rest of the gold will be saved up for next year in order to re build the stronghold in Owari that was destroyed during the Tokugawa occupation. Of course, that also destroyed the nearly finished "Medium Bune" in the harbor. Overall, absolutely massive financial losses.

A trade agreement is set up with Takeda.

End of year 1546.

**edyzmedieval** · 03-27-2011, 01:14

You're having an interesting challenge with Oda, I'm quite surprised you haven't hit many enemy stacks yet. Perhaps turtling a bit would be in order to secure your positions?

But what am I talking about, enjoy the fun and keep posting updates. I'm interested.

**muha** · 03-27-2011, 03:25

PART 5

Trust me, it gets better =).

Turn 9, year 1547, spring

During the AI's turns, I notice that some of my neighbors are having pretty serious wars with lots of stacks moving around and dissipating..

The Tokugawa sure are persistent!

Yet another army making its way to Mino..

(I could just ignore the army and capture their town, but that would make their army disappear, and make it boring for you guys, I would assume... so I do this instead)

All threats must be eliminated!

Takayama, who is not yet fully recovered from his previous battles shows his great honor and intercepts the enemy army!

one day I will try to write down one of the generals speeches.

The AI now sets up my formation the way I usually do.. nice!

This is the same field of battle that saw the end of the rebellion. coincidentally, the Tokugawa opted for fighting on the exact same hill...

This time I do not have such a big advantage, but I will try the 3 point pincer regardless.

Enemy wall of spears:

my army moves into position

The tokugawa counter immediately

My archers are forced into combat, while my pincer completely fails and my troops are wasting their breath running up the hill

my troops finally squish the enemy archers

all that is left is the enemy general

Who routs as soon as my army nears him. Victory is mine.

The enemy general lives.. no Seppuku.. what a shame..
I must give chase!

but I cant, Takayama simply will not make it, and he cannot pass the bridge, so he returns home to Owari, and Oda takes the stage.

It is auto resolved, Oda loses no men, while the 60 man garrison parishes.

The Tokugawa Clan is no more. A lengthy movie is shown, mostly all dark with some ninjas, some ambushes, and a Seppuku. unfortunately I don't see half of it because its sunny in my room and the video is mostly dark.

I finally obtain a trade resource of my own!

Mikawa is exempted from tax for the time being, the people are not too happy

I can now hire a Metsuke.

A stronghold is ordered to be rebuilt in Owari, and a single Bow Ashigaru in Mino.

My remaining enemy, the Imagawa are to the south East of my newly gained lands, and are allies with the Takeda, who are to the North West of my lands. That means A new front may open up at any moment that I simply cannot manage at this time.

But for now, we rest and party.

Turn 10, year 1547, summer

This has been a very dangerous two years for the Oda, and it seems that this year will not be any different.

Bad timing, but I get a new mission, this one has a timer for 3 seasons.

My archery dojo in Mino is completed.

The one who sieges the newly captured Mikawa is the Imagawa Daimyo, coincidentally, the Oda Daimyo is sitting behind those gates. I hope I will not have to sally against the enemy superior numbers.

One bow samurai, one yari samurai, and one yari ashigaru were ordered to be trained, in case Oda fails to hold the castle town were he is currently located.

I attempt to broker an alliance with the Hatakeyama, the strongest clan in my region.

The alliance is settled, and my youngest son will be held prisoner for two years.

Turn 11, year 1547, fall.

I got scared for a second when I saw this window, but the fear was uncalled for, since my great clan is not mentioned.

The Tokugawa rebel army raids the remaining two villages in my lands.
And somehow, my Daimyo manages to keep busy under such pressure from the enemies;

fearing I will lose Mikawa, I hire a Metsuke.

I take a gamble, and stay hidden behind my wall for yet another season, hopefully the enemy daimyo is not planning to starve me out.

Turn 12, year 1547, winter.

It seems that my fears were true, and I must sally or simply perish.

The stronghold in Owari is now complete, and a new building may be built. A sake den is chosen to fill the spot.

The rest of the gold is spent on training more troops.

and now, time to fight the grand battle of Mikawa!

talk about a disadvantage..

and it is snowing..

The speech:

the enemy:

my forces:

Both armies slowly walk towards eat other.

I try to rush up the hill first.

A massive front line is formed. I had to pause to take some good shots.

you can clearly tell how outnumbered I am.

They have a strong center, but my flanks are stronger. and that causes them to collapse on to themselves!
the enemy general who charged my left flank falls, and the army follows!

A truly heroic victory is mine!

Gotta love the superiority of my peasantry! If I was any other clan, I would have probably either lost the battle, or would have had enormous casualties.

The Imagawa army retreats a short ways away. And the enemy Daimyo is no more!

My metsuke goes into enemy territory to scout them out.

With no gold, and not much else to do. The year ends.

I will try to fit in one more update today.

**muha** · 03-28-2011, 18:02

PART 6

Turn 13, year 1548, spring.

Well, my mission failed..

The sakai were destroyed. Who ever that is.

Surprisingly the Imagawa army killed the Tokugawa rebel force that was pestering me

Takayama, with his brand new army is now ready to take the fight to the enemy.

The roads of Mino are commissioned to be improved. Nothing else really happens this season. And two Bow Kobaya is ordered to be build in owari.

Turn 14, year, 1548, summer.

The Mastery of the spear is finally completed, and here is what happens:

The study of "Todofuken" comes next.

The sake Den in Owari is now completed

Oh Jesus..

(pun intended, no offense however)

A ninja is hired to wreck havoc on enemies of Oda.

The army in Mikawa is far too hurt to do much harm, so they will remain there for one more season.

Here is the land of my enemy:

Turn 15, year 1548, fall.

Mino now has better roads.

My old neighbor is no more.

The hattori now control those lands.

I request an alliance to secure my southern borders.

My two ship navy sails out, and discovers an enemy fleet raiding another clans trading route.

I am very excited to see how naval combat looks, so I will attack them fully knowing I will probably lose.

There is now visible land in the battle. I guess we fight near the shores.

Here are my two puny ships:

enemy not so puny ships:

pretty arrows

They board one of my ships

they surrender almost immediately, the other one routs shortly after. It is a crushing defeat. I do not like naval combat. =(

The ship that routed, survived the fray.

My spy failed his first mission

Takayam is now at the front lines, waiting to invade Imagawa territory next season.

A stronghold is ordered to be built in Mino. And another bow kobaya in Owari.

Turn 16, year 1548, winter.

The enemy navy catches and engages my poor little ship. I cannot retreat, so It it auto resolved.

No more ships for me.

I send my spy to sabotage Totomi, but he failed and got executed.

Cant help it now, I have to invade and siege it using the good old way. By force. Takayama's first task is to destroy the Imagawa army that has been raiding my villages. The first attack makes them run. The second attack, they must fight, and they get help.

The speech:

This time I use a stock formation. "Reclining Dragon" a melee heavy attack formation.

I rush the enemy formation before the reinforcements get there.

The enemy routs, now for the reinforcements.

barely touched them and they all rout.

The battle is easily my victory. Even though I screwed up big time and could not manage the formation after that It all went to hell and I simply could not take screens because I was losing control of the situation... lost way more then I should have.

The siege of Totomi will have to wait until next year. But no worries, my Metsuke confirmed that the Imagawa will not be a threat for a while.

The last thing that is done this year is the improvement of farms in Mino.

some big battle going on right next to my capital.

A single ship is sent to meet new clans and chart the great lands of Japan.